Boys basketball: Banquet wraps up state championship season for Blue Devils

Friday

Mar 21, 2014 at 2:00 AM

EPPING — The Epping High School boys basketball team returned home as state champions. There was a police escort, community members waving and cheering from windows — even a few young autograph seekers when the parade rolled to a stop.

RYAN O'LEARY

EPPING — The Epping High School boys basketball team returned home as state champions. There was a police escort, community members waving and cheering from windows — even a few young autograph seekers when the parade rolled to a stop.

In his final address to the 2013-14 Division IV champs, Epping coach Sean Young wanted to make sure his players understood what it all meant.

"Forget about winning and losing and all that stuff," Young said during Tuesday's season-closing sports banquet held at Epping. "It's how do you want to be perceived by people in this community? How do you want to be perceived by the little ones?

"It's a big task that you guys have been given, and I know that each and every one of you guys are going to do awesome with it. But I hope that you realize the importance of the choices that you guys make, the things that you guys do inside the school, outside the school. It has an impact on people and how you guys are viewed."

Right now in Epping, the view from up here sure is sweet.

The team's players and family members — along with all the other winter sports programs — gathered to celebrate the season that was. For the boys basketball team, that meant scaling back over the school's first state championship in 16 years, and the program's first since Ryan Gatchell and Co. completed their perfect run through Class S from 1991-92.

The Blue Devils finished 19-3 with Saturday's come-from-behind, 74-70 win over fourth-seeded Sunapee in the Division IV final. They secured the most wins of any Epping team over the past 22 years, doing it with a first-year coach and a group of players that seemed to relish in the most seat-squirming of moments.

To Young, it all started coming together before a game was played.

"What made it so special is I had five seniors who bought in and believed in me," he said. "If the seniors didn't believe in me, then none of this would have been possible. Your sophomores and your underclassmen, they always want to perform for a new coach, but to have five seniors buy in and believe in me the way that these guys did, it just trickled down."

Among Epping's influential senior class was Jimmy Stanley, a fourth-year varsity player who scored 444 points this season to finish with 1,187 for his career. He's one of nine Epping players to join the 1,000-point club and will close his career as the program's fifth leading scorer all-time.

Stanley was also selected as the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, which is voted on by the Division IV coaches in the southern region of the state.

"The only thing that I can say that (people) might not know is the leadership skills that he brings at practice and what he brings to the table off the court," Young said of Stanley. "Just the way that his teammates look up to him, the way that they respond to what he says."

Here's some of the highlights from Epping's big night:

Captain's Award

Young strayed away from naming team captains this winter, instead challenging his players to become leaders in their own way. That will change in 2014. Young presented sophomore Colby Wilson with the Captain's Award, making him the program's lone team captain entering summer ball.

"These guys have been around me, they know what I expect and what I want: how you act in school, how you act out of school, what you do on the court, how you represent the letters "EPPING" across your chest."

Wilson was the third-leading scorer on the team behind Stanley and center Brett Couture. His 52 made 3-pointers topped the team — more than doubling the next player in line.

Coach's Award

Epping senior Chris Comeau only saw enough playing time to log nine points this season, but his influence on the team stretched far beyond minutes.

He was given the clever nickname of BC — which stands for "Bench Captain" — for his enthusiasm during games, always leading chants and keeping his teammates' spirits high.

It's no wonder he plans to enlist in the Navy after the school year. Young presented Comeau with the Coach's Award for all the contributions he made outside of the public eye.

"I'm extremely proud to say that he played for me," Young said of Comeau. "I'm going to know him for years to come. He was an absolute, inspirational leader to our basketball team."

High glass

Senior Chandler Brissette found his role on the team as a defensive playmaker. He led the team in charges taken, averaging 1.1 per game.

His offensive contributions were more scattered, and Young joked about the ribbing Brissette took for pulling the string on his layups inside, particularly with his left hand.

Brissette, who will enlist in the Marines next year, got the last laugh in Saturday's final. His layup high off the window was the game-winning bucket in Epping's comeback win over Sunapee.

"He listened, because that thing almost hit the top of the backboard and comes off the rim," Young said of the play. "But he made sure he told me: 'Coach, I made a left-handed layup.' And like I said, It was a left-handed layup to win a state championship.'"

Perfect practice

One of Young's favorite memories from the season happened behind closed doors in the Epping gymnasium.

A scheduling mix-up pitted the boys varsity practice at the same time as the school's Project Unified co-ed team. So the Blue Devils took it as a chance to give back and grow as a unit.

"I said, 'You know what? If you want we'll work out with you guys. We'll do something,'" Young said of the memory. "My boys were absolutely unbelievable. It's just something that we don't talk about a lot, it's something that doesn't get broadcast or seen, but it was single-handedly the best practice we had all year long."

Epping's unified team finished 1-4 this season and was coached by Lindsey Hansen and Heidi Langlais.

Notables

The Blue Devil Award was presented to Mike McKay, who attended every team practice and handled all of the team's video taping throughout the season. ...; One of the top highlights of the regular season was when Epping sported pink uniforms as part of its inaugural Coaches Against Cancer fund-raiser during a home game against Pittsfield. The campaign raised close to $1,000 for cancer research, Young said. ...; The program's future looks bright. Aside from those eligible to return on varsity, the Epping boys JV team finished undefeated in Division IV play during the regular season. It wound up finishing 18-2 overall as the runner-up of the Pittsfield JV Tournament. A.J. Newman and Nick Arsenault were each presented awards from coach Ed Meade.

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